Southern View: January 11, 2024

4
Thursday January 11 2024
Documentary maker finds solace
• By Sasha Watson
KIRSTY CAMERON is someone
who doesn’t shy away from
telling traumatic, hard-hitting
stories.
She has experienced many
deaths of her loved ones from a
young age.
“The first funeral I attended
was at 5-years-old. During my
adolescent years, I attended a funeral
every year, saying goodbye
to over 10 beloved family members
and friends,” she said.
“It was a macabre joke in
our family that we didn’t need
to bother with reunions as we
caught up at the funeral home
every year. The same song playing,
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
(I hate that song), the same pastor,
just fewer people getting up
to speak.”
Cameron said at intermediate
school, a young girl had died in
an accident on the playground
and at 17, her best friend was
killed in a car crash by a drunk
driver, absolutely “shattering” her
world.
“I’ve watched four family
members battle cancer. I know
death well. I know what it is to
fear the phone ringing, to fear
that particular ‘hey’ on the other
end, in a tone that you just know
is bringing soul-crushing news,”
she said.
“So I guess I gravitate towards
loss and those who feel it. It’s a
familiar space somehow.”
LET’S TALK: Kirsty Cameron, director and producer of soon-to-be-released documentary
The Garden Room, wants to open the conversation around stillbirth.
Cameron has found such
familarity as the sole director
and producer of two full-feature
documentaries, both talking
about some of the most isolating
experiences one can live through.
Her newest documentary,
The Garden Room, will be
handed over for post-production
work in February before being
aired on Shine TV New Zealand,
GOOD Australia, and entered
into festivals.
The Casebrook resident is a
full-time freelance videographer
for business, mostly modelling
and fashion.
“But my heart is set on documentaries.
“I love listening to people.
Trauma can be so isolating and
telling their hard stories gives me
a purpose, because if it’s not me,
who else?”
The Garden Room is a true story
about Cameron’s friends from
Burnside, Kylie and Ben Collins,
and their four children, Arlo, 4,
Azalea, 9, Kaiden, 12, and Maia,
14, who were all excited about
meeting newborn Grayson.
At 40 weeks, Kylie Collins met
with her midwife at Rangiora
Hospital for a stretch and sweep,
and the midwife made a devastating
discovery. The baby had no
heartbeat.
Collins was then rushed to
Christchurch Women’s Hospital
where, in the Garden Room – a
dedicated delivery room for
women experiencing fetal loss –
‘Every parent wants to
celebrate their child’s birth
but when one loses them,
it seems no one feels
comfortable to even say
the baby’s name’
– Kirsty Cameron
with Ben at her side, she delivered
her baby boy. Grayson never took
his first breath.
Said Cameron: “When I met
Kylie through church, she was
30 weeks pregnant. We connected
absolutely over her love
for Disney and with loud kids
everywhere.
“I wanted to make Kylie a small
keepsake film of her, Ben and
the kids meeting Grayson. Then
I saw a post pop-up on Kylie’s
Facebook page.
“Everything in me crashed as
I read about what had happened.
There was never any indication, it
was not even a possibility that he
would be stillborn.
“It was the most awful feeling,
knowing there was nothing I
could do. But, with my skills,
I could potentially give them a
space to share their journey or an
outlet.”
After watching Collins talk
openly and honestly at the
funeral of her son, Cameron
asked to follow the family
and she spent about two years
documenting and filming.
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